Chicago in Dreiser’s Sister Carrie , Farrell’s Studs Lonigan, and Wright’s Native Son

Theodore Dreiser, James T. Farrell, and Richard Wright form an interesting literary triad since they were twentieth-century Chicago novelists who operated within a tradition which may be loosely described as “realistic” and “naturalistic.” Moreover, both Farrell and Wright stressed their indebtedness to Dreiser for freeing them from the limitations of conventional fiction, thus enabling them to develop visions and voices which were distinctly modern. Sister Carrie is enclosed by scenes in which the central character looks out of windows and is stimulated by a vision of the city which fires her imagination by extending to her limitless possibilities for growth which her questing spirit craves. Farrell’s Studs Lonigan presents a startling different picture of the modern American city but it borrows this technique from Dreiser of using window reveries to make its urban vision clear and coherent.